


And the Birds of Venice

by penoftruthiness



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Pre-Relationship, That thing where you hurt Ezekiel because you love him, some angst but also quite a bit of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-13 22:08:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10522878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penoftruthiness/pseuds/penoftruthiness
Summary: Ezekiel's on the ground, clutching his head and screaming for Cassandra to get out of it.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [outruneverything](https://archiveofourown.org/users/outruneverything/gifts).



> More fluff than intended, but Cassandra/Ezekiel just makes me so happy.

“I don’t understand Venice.” Jake said, like the architecture elitist that he was. Cassandra saw Ezekiel’s eyes roll from off to her right and suppressed a smile. “I mean, sure, it had a lot of exciting history. But now it’s an entire city morphed into a tourist trap.”

Ezekiel, for his part, was walking on the edge of one of the canals, his arms out for balance. It was worrying Cassandra a bit. That water certainly didn’t look clean. He looked up when he reached one of the bridges. “How come I knew you were going to be a prick about this?”

Jake spun around from where he was walking in front of them to frown. “Have you ever been here before?”

Ezekiel smiled easily. “Of course. Do you know how many art museums there are around here? Not to mention the tourists coming straight off cruise boats.”

Jake rolled his eyes and turned back around. “Should have expected that one, I guess.”

Cassandra smiled at Ezekiel. She was walking next to him, further away from the water, but still within grabbing distance if the Australian suddenly lost his balance. “It’s even prettier than I imagined it.”

And it was. Cassandra had wanted to go to Venice ever since she was a little girl. The entire city always seemed like a far-off romantic dream. And in person, it was almost exactly as she’d imagined it. Couples were walking around the small cobblestone streets, holding hands or eating ice cream, staring at the old buildings surrounded by water. Of course, she hadn’t been expecting to be here on business.

Cassandra turned again to find Ezekiel looking at her.

“What?”

“What are you thinking about?” Ezekiel had this amazing way of asking questions in a casual manner that also made it clear how much he cared. It was number three on the list of Cassandra’s Favorite Things About Ezekiel Jones.

Cassandra lowered her voice, glancing furtively up at Jake, who had started muttering under his breath at one of the buildings up ahead that had a (apparently incorrect) placard. “I’m trying to figure out if I can find a way to make a gondola ride relevant to our Library investigations.”

Ezekiel moved closer, whispering too. “Not searching in the water would be a beginner’s mistake. I mean, this city’s practically half water, right? What if whatever we’re looking for is in the middle of the Grand Canal? What would we tell Jenkins?”

They grinned at each other. Jake called out from ahead.

“Hey, we’re here!”

The Clippings Book had started shaking early that morning, when all of the younger members of the Library team were still asleep. Jenkins ended up knocking on all their doors, demanding that they “wake up like adults and take care of this mess”. Ezekiel, of course, had decided to argue that Jenkins should handle an artifact for once, and by the time that had blown over, Jake and Cassandra were already ready to step through the portal. That hadn’t been an amazing start to the day. Although when Cassandra found out where they were going, she did start to get her hopes up. She’d always wanted to visit Venice, but before the surgery, before the Library, she never thought she’d get the chance.

But here they were. The Leonardo da Vinci Museum in Venice. It was one of the smaller museums collecting replicas of da Vinci’s works, interesting enough for a beginner but not an extensive collection (as Jake had told Cassandra while they were waiting for Ezekiel to shave, put on pants, eat an entire pizza, or whatever he did in the morning). One of the replicas of da Vinci’s designs had begun to fly around the place. It wasn’t often, especially not when lots of visitors were present. However, a few lone travelers or people who came in nearing closing time had noticed movement from one of the wings. One maintenance man had nearly had a heart attack during a routine nightly sweeping when a wing apparently swooped at him. This had finally got the attention of a local paper, which the Clippings Book promptly communicated to them.

“Is this like an Italian ‘Night at the Museum’?” Had been Ezekiel’s greeting when he finally rolled into the Annex, a full 25 minutes late.

Jake and Cassandra both rolled their eyes before jumping through the door, leaving Ezekiel to follow them.

 

There were several wing designs in the museum, and it wasn’t immediately obvious which one was the culprit. Everything looked fairly peaceful; a vision into what could have been the future. The now, Cassandra guessed.

She had taken to reading some of the provided information about the pieces, waiting for something strange to happen (as it always seemed to do when they were around).

The night security guard (a replacement for the one the article was written about, who had immediately quit) had left fifteen minutes ago, missing one ring of keys thanks to Ezekiel. Jake, Cassandra, and Ezekiel had decided to split up, get a look around the museum, and see if they could see anything strange.

There was nothing so far, and Cassandra decided that she wanted to walk around with Ezekiel. Nothing like enjoying a typical tourist trap illegally. They had strolled through the rest of the museum together, reading the placards off to each other.

And then Ezekiel had to make a joke about a machine. As he turned around to see whether or not Cassandra was laughing, she was treated to front seat view as a wing fell straight on top of him. He crumpled to the ground.

 

 

Ezekiel had been asleep for three hours now. This wasn’t incredibly unusual. Cassandra and Jake had made a game out of finding Ezekiel when he fell asleep in the collection, seeing who could get the closest without waking him up (and after they discovered that the Australian was a heavy sleeper, how many of the only moderately dangerous artifacts they could put on him before he woke up). However, Ezekiel looked completely different this time.

Even if Cassandra hadn’t seen him collapse earlier, even if she thought he fell asleep after another boring lecture by Flynn, she would know something was wrong. Ezekiel had sweat all over him, his face practically shining. His breaths were slow and shallow, like he couldn’t quite get enough air into his lungs.

The longer he lay there, the more worried they all became. Even Flynn was fretting, in his own barely-useful way.

Jenkins had been looking for a cure since they brought him through the Doorway, a Door created in the museum when Jake had called Eve in a panic. So far, nothing seemed to be working.

And then Cassandra had an idea. She had been reading about this new type of magic, something she hadn’t tried before. According to the book sitting on her desk in the other room, it would let her enter someone else’s mind and see what parts might be malfunctioning.

With her heart beating louder and louder every second, she didn’t bother asking permission from anyone else.

 

At first, she couldn’t tell what she was looking at. The write-up from the journal she was reading had been very vague, and Cassandra had expected something more…scientific.

As it was, she was staring at a young boy sitting at a table. The image was bouncy though, vibrating. And the background was indistinct. Something about it screamed _Memory_.

A tall man entered from the haze.

“What did I say about stealing, boy?” The man’s voice was gruff and deep. Mean. His face was incredibly clear and detailed compared to the boy’s. It was snarling.

“Not to…not to do it.” The boy’s voice echoed around Cassandra, and that’s when she realized whose memory this must be.

She got so excited to have a theory confirmed, a new magical experience to write about and analyze, that she nearly missed the rest of the scene.

The man grabbed the boy, pulling him up by his hair. This immediately brought her mind back to the scene in front of her, yanked back from the possibilities it was considering.

“Guess who I got a call from today?” Pulling, pulling. “Your school.” The man’s mouth was close enough to the boy’s face that Cassandra was sure he must be able to feel breath on his cheek.

“I just…needed…food.” The boy gasped out. More pulling. More pain. The memory went red, then faded out.

 

Several scenes flashed in front of Cassandra’s eyes. An older Ezekiel, looking for food. Finding money. Finding friends. Then losing them again. Soon he morphed into the man she knew today. Funny, charming, and still…sad. She saw the day they all met, several scenes of Ezekiel working at the Library. Then a scene in brilliant detail, a full background and all, of her and Ezekiel at a science fair, him stealing yet again…but there was something happier about it this time.

The scenes got faster and faster, moving forward in time, then back, then haphazardly, like someone had lost control of the timeline. Eventually the scenes got too fast to even comprehend, and Cassandra closed her eyes…

 

The first thing she heard was a loud scream. Then some scattered murmurs, different voices talking quietly. One voice rose above them all, forming words. Cassandra blinked back into reality, running to the next room where the scream had come from.

“Get out…get out!” Ezekiel was muttering in his sleep. “Get out”, over and over. Cassandra had been deep enough in his mind that she couldn’t have heard him. But from looking around at the rest of the group, she knew. This had been going on for some time.

He looked small, smaller than she’d ever remembered seeing him. They hadn’t had time to clear off a table for him, and after he started screaming, the others hadn’t wanted to move him and risk disturbing him further. Before, he looked almost peaceful from far away. Now, his face was contorted into a silent scream, one hand clutched to his head in agony. There was nothing any of them could do to help them, although Jake, Jenkins, and even Flynn were searching through all the books that the Library offered, trying to find an answer. Eve was holding Ezekiel’s other hand, stroking it and whispering softly. Cassandra hadn’t felt this useless since the hospital, since the last time she watched people dying and couldn’t do anything to stop it.

Ezekiel couldn’t die, though. He couldn’t. Of all of them, he was the youngest, the smartest, the bravest…the most fragile.

Nobody was holding it together, least of all Cassandra. She had to leave.

The obscure magical books section was a private enough place to sob.

 

Oddly enough, the obscure magical books section was also an excellent place to do research. Cassandra tried to ignore the nagging voice in her head telling her off for abandoning one of her favorite people. But she was the one who hurt him. The image of Ezekiel, on the ground clutching his head and screaming for Cassandra to get out of it, flashed over and over in her head.

Now she had to something good in exchange.

Ezekiel deserved better than equivalence, of course. Better than one gift for one pain. But Cassandra wasn’t the kind of person who could give Ezekiel what he deserved, and she’d played that debate out for herself a thousand times by now, so it was barely worth considering.

It only took her four books before she found something.

 

“There’s something I want to try.” She said, stepping lightly into the room. The view hadn’t changed much, everyone still standing vigil over their youngest Librarian. At least Ezekiel had stopped screaming. Now it was just eerie silence.

Everyone looked up at her. Eve spoke first, voice soft. “What exactly?”

“Wait, you’re going to use magic again, aren’t you?” Jake cut in. He was angry, angrier than she’d ever seen him. It was way more vicious than it had ever been when Ezekiel pissed him off. So Jake had never really been mad with Ezekiel, huh? Cassandra filed that away for later.

“Yes.” She nodded, slowly. “It’s different this time, I swear. This is going to work.”

It was the most confidence she’d ever displayed in herself, and one of the biggest lies she’d ever told. But they were out of options. It had been five hours now, and Ezekiel, if anything, looked even worse. From what she’d seen in the book she was reading, they couldn’t wait much longer if he wanted to retain brain function.

Jake started arguing again, but Jenkins cut him off. “This is our only option. Just let her try it.”

Cassandra smiled at him, grateful for always finding a supportive voice from Jenkins. She knelt over Ezekiel, and held her hands over him.

 

“I can’t believe you all thought I was going to die.”

“Don’t be a jerk about it!”

Ezekiel laughed, casual and carefree. You could have never guessed that twelve hours ago, he looked like he was on his deathbed.

“Now tell me, did any of you shed a tear?”

She did, but she wasn’t about to tell Ezekiel that. “We’re all professionals. Come on, what flavor do you want?”

Ezekiel let out a low hum. “I’m a traditional kinda guy. Gonna go with strawberry and chocolate.”

Cassandra looked up at the cashier. “Can I try butterscotch?”

They grabbed their gelato cups, strolling slowly back towards the main square.

“I’m sorry.” Cassandra offered. The words had been spinning around in her head for days, and now that the two of them were finally alone, she needed to say them out loud.

Ezekiel raised an eyebrow. “For what?”

“For using magic?” She thought that was fairly obvious. “For hurting you? I know you say you don’t remember it, but you…you were in pain. And that was my fault.”

“Don’t you dare.” Ezekiel said, shaking his head. “I’m not going to put up with any guilt from you. You saved my life.”

“But Ezekiel, I…I saw things. I don’t think you would have wanted me to see them.”

Ezekiel stopped, leaning against a wall, considering her statement for a moment. “You know, I thought I wouldn’t. But I have a fairly good idea of what sorts of things you might have seen. It actually feels pretty good to have you know, y’know? I wouldn’t want anyone else to have seen, but…”

In the face of his small smile, Cassandra found herself knowing exactly the feeling he was talking about, and she wanted to share her secrets in return. But not in a place as beautiful as this. And she wanted them both to enjoy the day. After a minute, they continued on their walk.

“So,” Ezekiel asked, “is Venice everything you thought it’d be?”

Cassandra ate a bite of her gelato before answering. “Absolutely. Plus I get to spend the day with you.”

“Yeah, I guess I’m pretty cool.” Ezekiel winked at her. “Oh wait, is that birdseed?”

And he was off like a shot across the square, straight at a suddenly-$5-richer birdseed vendor. Ezekiel knelt down right in front of a sign saying “Do Not Feed the Pigeons”, spreading birdseed over both arms and in his hair. By the time Cassandra caught up with him, he had birds all over his body, pecking at him.

“You could raise a flock like this, you know.” She said, picking his cup off the ground before sitting down with him.

“I would be an excellent mama bird, wouldn’t I?” Ezekiel said to the pigeon on his shoulder, receiving a peck for his efforts.

Through giggles, Cassandra thought that Venice was like a dream come true.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Personally, I like to imagine Ezekiel interacting with every type of animal.
> 
> Come talk to me on [tumblr](http://conversationslikeminefields.tumblr.com/).


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